Euclid

Abstract:

We report the determination of the 2dF spectroscopic selection function as a function of both redshift and magnitude per observed field. Variations in number densities between fields due to intrinsic clustering in the QSO population can then be disentangled from those caused by varying completenesses in fields observed under differing weather conditions.

Abstract:

We present the first results from a major Hubble Space Telescope program designed to investigate the cosmological evolution of quasar host galaxies from z~2 to the present day. Here we describe J and H-band NICMOS imaging of two quasar samples at redshifts of 0.9 and 1.9 respectively. Each sample contains equal numbers of radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars, selected to lie within the same narrow range of optical absolute magnitude (-24 > M_V > -25). Filter and target selection were designed to ensure that at each redshift the images sample the same part of the object's rest-frame spectrum, avoiding potential contamination by [OIII]lambda5007 and H-alpha emission lines. At z=1 the hosts of both radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars lie on the same Kormendy relation described by 3CR radio galaxies at comparable redshift. There is some evidence for a gap of ~1 mag between the host luminosities of RLQs and RQQs, a difference that cannot be due to emission-line contamination given the design of our study. However, within current uncertainties, simple passive stellar evolution is sufficient to link these galaxies with the elliptical hosts of low-redshift quasars of comparable nuclear output, implying that the hosts are virtually fully assembled by z=1. At z=2 the luminosity gap appears to have widened further to ~1.5 mag. Thus while the hosts of radio-loud quasars remain consistent with a formation epoch of z>3, allowing for passive evolution implies that the hosts of radio-quiet quasars are ~2-4 times less massive at z=2 than at low z.

Abstract:

With approximately 6000 QSO redshifts,the 2dF QSO redshift survey is already the biggest complete QSO survey. The aim for the survey is to have 25000 QSO redshifts, providing an order of magnitude increase in QSO clustering statistics. We first describe the observational parameters of the 2dF QSO survey. We then describe several highlights of the survey so far, including new estimates of the QSO luminosity function and its evolution. We also review the current status of QSO clustering analyses from the 2dF data. Finally, we discuss how the complete QSO survey will be able to constrain the value of Omega_o by measuring the evolution of QSO clustering, place limits on the cosmological constant via a direct geometrical test and determine the form of the fluctuation power-spectrum out to the approximately 1000 Mpc scales only previously probed by COBE.